Homecoming 2009

Last Homecoming for Ryan and for James. How weird that seems. Last night at the dance, another chaperone asked if I would care as much about school activities after this year. My response was that I cared about school activities before children and even before James, but I don't really know. It's hard to imagine not caring but I suppose that day will come.

Amy was home for the weekend, feeling much better after two emergency room visits (kidney stone and muscular pain). I heard from my sister Kathy in Florida and my sister Paula came over for a visit. Ryan won his game and the weather broke just as the game got under way. It was senior recognition so between the raindrops and the tears, everyone and everything was wet if not muddy. But it was a very nice weekend for the Harpursville Dalpiaz family. I hope the same for you.

News update

We had a threat of bad weather this weekend but it didn't turn out to be too bad. We had to travel over an hour east to Ryan's game this week so we were fearful of what we would be facing but it turned out to be not bad at all. And they won! Ryan had a great game and scored 3 touchdowns. That's a personal high for him. Thanks for noticing Kathleen and Nick! Next week is Homecoming and we are hoping for a good day then also. He's the guy with the ball here--number 4.

I am trying to document the stories behind some of the things we have collected around here (and you know your brother--we have collected quite a few things). I want their stories known so that someday when Ryan or Amy is deciding whether to sell it in a garage sale or throw it away, they do so knowingly. This is a picture of an item I am certain came from your father's house. I thought I remembered it being down in the basement near the bar but that could be wrong. Any ideas? Neither Kathleen nor James knows anything about it. It's a small bell that's maybe 3 inches tall. The top button with the D appears to be leather about 1 inch across. There seems to be some kind of fastener on the top. I would love to hear about it if you know anything.

Happy Birthday Drew!

Go play in some leaves today Drew. Happy Birthday.

Fall Splendor

Yesterday my sister Paula and I took a little ride to Ithaca to leaf peep and shop. We did more peeping than shopping but we had a great time. We revisited Taughannock Falls and I was able to get a picture from nearly the same spot as I did during Kathleen and Nick's visit. I thought you might find the differences interesting especially in the water flow. It's as beautiful in the fall as it was in the summer (and we found a great new restaurant to try next time, Kathleen and Nick!).

My recent genealogical luck led to an interview with one of my favorite podcasters Lisa Louise Cooke. The podcast is Genealogy Gems and my interview is at the end of episode 73. It's all about my recent revelations concerning your grandfathers James and Costante. I've been very very lucky recently and it was fun to share the story with someone who could really appreciate the significance of them with me.

Guess Thomas isn't the only media darling recently (no video for me, thank you very much but you looked and sounded great Thomas!). Thanks Jean for the heads-up since Bloomberg isn't on my hit parade.

On the Front Edge of History

Here you see Costante Dalpiaz's application for a Social Security number. This document is interesting for a couple of different reasons. One of the most important to me is that it contains his signature. I like to "collect" ancestral signatures and this is a dandy example.

He indicates he was born in Austria. I recall Uncle Lou telling us stories about how these immigrants would identify themselves as Austrian or Italian and the two sides did not see eye to eye. Costante was Austrian. We can see his employer and his home address as well as his parents' names very clearly indicated.

Most interesting to me is that this application was filled out in November 1936 meaning it was among the very first! From the Social Security Administration: Since the Social Security Board did not have a network of field offices in late 1936, it contracted with the U.S. Postal Service to distribute and assign the first batch of Social Security numbers through its 45,000 local post offices around the country. Of these 45,000 post offices, 1,074 were also designated as "typing centers" where the cards themselves were prepared. The procedure for issuing the first SSNs were that the SS-4 application forms were to be distributed by the post offices to employers beginning Monday, November 16, 1936. These forms asked the employers to indicate how many employees they had at their place of business. Using the data from the SS-4 forms, the post offices then supplied an SS-5 form for each employee and these forms (on which the assignment of an SSN was based) were to be distributed by the post offices beginning Tuesday, November 24, 1936. This one is dated Nov 28 1936. Who knew Costante was on the forefront of such history?

A little breakthrough to share

I was trying to decide what to share on this blog next and noticed these two documents in my collection. I find them very interesting for a couple of different reasons. They both concern your grandfather James Coffarelli, for whom I have already had to solve a fair number of mysteries!

The Certificate of Baptism from St. Mary's Long Island City is for a child named Jacob Simeon Coffarelli sone of John and Rosa Coffarelli. Definitely your family and the birth date of July 25 1898 matches all records I have for your grandfather James. It has been a huge mystery to me why the name is Jacob Simeon. It is dated June 6 1923 so we can presume he requested it as a requirement of his upcoming Catholic wedding just a few weeks later.

The Certificate of Marriage from St. Rita's certifies that James Coffarelli and Marguerite Manzelli were married June 27 1923. The documents are strikingly similar -- indeed they are produced by the same company so I imagine area churches all used the same.

They reside back to back inside a sheet protector in my notebook and I just thought you might like to see them again and take notice of a few things. Other than the child's name, his baptismal sponsors were Frank Scaretta and Margherita Nigra. I don't know if these are relatives but since James was the last of 9 children, it seems likely they may have given this honor to family friends.

Off I went to bed thinking I knew just how I was going to write the blog today. Relaxing your mind allows little brainstorms in and I had such an experience last night just as I was drfiting off. That darn Jacob Simeon was really bugging me and I was thinking about how I was going to note that the baptism certificate was produced 25 years after the event to prepare for the wedding. That means someone had to copy over and transcribe the information in the original church records.

And that's when the light when on! I am guessing that your grandfather James may have been listed in the original church records with his Italian name Giacomo--which can also be translated as Jacob! Ta-da! A perfectly reasonable hypothesis for the name on the baptismal certificate. Perhaps Simon/Simeon really was his middle name. I don't think I have anything else to help me figure that out for sure, but I am very pleased with myself that there may be an answer to that little mystery.

I slept very well after that. Now all I have to do is come up with some reason for him to have been listed as Samuel in the census records........

Update from the Ville

Yeah, I hate it but some of the coaches and athletes are referring to Harpursville as "the Ville". The Harpur part is what makes us unique is what I say but you can imagine how much weight such a statement from a gray haired lady carries.

Ryan calls this picture "Smooshed"--that's him in the middle between those colliding gor-ma-trons. The team is now 1-2 but we can live with that. No miracles were expected under a new coaching staff and for now it looks like things might be on the right track for "the boys of the Ville". He's looking forward to playing some defense this week (I'm not) in a game they are expected to lose --so no pressure.

I remember when Ryan was probably about 8 and Linda and Scott were able to see one of his youth league games. Ryan came off the field bleeding from his mouth and I always thought Linda probably swore off football for her boys forever that day. This season, I feel a little bit like that.

We got the "Save the Date" card in the mail this week! Yeah--and congratulations Brian and Monet. I'll be adding all sorts of new stuff to the Dalpiaz family tree in 2010. It's kind of nice to be adding names at the bottom rather than at the top or out to the sides of the family tree....do you think I might have that backwards?

Pat, Steve and the kids looked great on Good Morning America. Looking forward to hearing some dog stories. Welcome Sade.

I hope you all had a good first day of fall and enjoy what the season has to offer.